Liking Liz a Lot: Local activist Jean-Louis Bourgeois reports he’s launching the West Village campaign to get Elizabeth Warren to run for president. The scion of renowned sculptor Louise Bourgeois recently met Warren at a Park Ave. fundraiser for a New Hampshire Senate candidate. “I am really keen to have Elizabeth replace Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president because Hillary’s record is tarnished,” he said. “Hillary was a director of Walmart for six or seven years. That just takes her out of consideration. She’s not a progressive anymore — if she ever was one — and Elizabeth is a superb progressive.” Bourgeois added he hopes to persuade the Village Independent Democrats club to endorse the Massachusetts senator for president, assuming she’s interested in running. “But that’s a tall order, and I know it,” he admitted, “but it’s an interesting goal. … I delayed the construction of the $26 million Talo Dam, in Mali, for six years,” he said. “I’m used to fighting extreme odds.” So who else is joining him in backing a potential Warren campaign for POTUS? “At this point, it’s just me,” he said. Also pushing for Warren in the White House is Charles Lenchner, who was the digital director for Zephyr Teachout’s recent surprisingly competitive primary-election race against Governor Andrew Cuomo. Lechner was holding up a “Run Liz Run” banner on W. 42nd St. and handing out stickers during the recent People’s Climate March, below left. “She’s good on any issue because she doesn’t take corporate money,” he said of Warren. “She would be a good environmental president.” But is she running? “We’re doing our best!” he said. As for Teachout’s campaign, which really started to gain steam toward the end, he reflected, “We should have started that ‘Whistleblower Tour’ two weeks earlier.”
Patrol finds new place: The Christopher St. Patrol found itself on the outs, literally, after the flare-up over Boots N Saddles at the Community Board 2 State Liquor Authority Committee meeting last month. To recap, David Poster, the volunteer anticrime patrol’s president, told the meeting that the longtime local gay bar was no longer wanted in the area — or anywhere in the West Village, for that matter — because of what he called its bad behavior. We had heard word got back to Pastor Mark Erson, of St. John’s Lutheran Church, which is located across the street from the bar, and the patrol was promptly “booted” from the church, where it had always gathered before its quality-of-life sorties onto the Village’s mean nighttime streets. But the patrol quickly landed on its feet at a new location — which is being kept secret, at least for now — perhaps out of fear of protests by angry drag queens? “We’re not going to publicize where it is, but it’s in the Village,” Poster told us this week. “We got a new space immediately. After being at St. John’s 21 years — and never having a word said about us after 24 years of patrolling — we have a new space, and we’re going to continue doing what we’ve been doing for 24 years. See something, say something, we’ll continue to do it.” Their new assembly spot, he said, is “close enough to Christopher St. for us to do what we need to do. It sure is! It sure is!” Poster confidently contended that his group — as seen by the large turnout at the C.B. 2 meeting — has the overwhelming support of the area’s residents and block associations. “The residents, the whole community wants us, respects us,” he said. “It’s the bar, their patrons, the pastor who are upset. For 38 years, we never had a problem with Boots N Saddles. They were there 40 years. The problems started two years ago, when they started these loud shows, loud music blasting out on the street. They open the door, the music’s blasting out…and sometimes they leave the door open. They want a place, but it’s the negative effect on the community that we don’t want.” As for Poster, a retired menswear buyer, he’s lived in the Village 36 years. And he said he’ll continue to speak out, as he sees fit. “I could have not spoken out and continued to be there,” he said of staying at St. John’s Lutheran. “But you know me. My agenda is to make sure everyone is safe in the community — I mean everybody.” Pastor Erson tells a different story than Poster, though. First of all, he clarified that the church’s leadership had decided to boot the patrol before last month’s C.B. 2 S.L.A. Committee meeting. Boots N Saddle had previously eyed moving into a different new space, which had been met with a similarly strong opposition from the community, and it was at that time, Erson said, that other members of the patrol — not Poster — had made harsh statements about the gay bar. “I had spoken to Dave before,” Erson said. “I know these were members of his group. Somebody from the watch group attacked the ministry of this church. I don’t want to see one group all being lumped together and vilified.” The Christopher St. cleric added that Robert Ziegler, Boots N Saddle’s owner, is a member of St. John’s congregation. “Dave and I have disagreed since the beginning,” said Erson, who became the church’s pastor several years ago. “He supports closing the pier at 9 p.m.; I disagree. He says he speaks for the Village. No, he doesn’t. This is New York — hello — every block has a diversity of opinions.” The Lutheran leader acknowledged, “Yes, Boots N Saddle’s door swings open and the music is loud, and Robert’s trying to find a bigger space. I think the business has outgrown the space. All the spaces he’s been looking at have been larger. … But Dave using the word ‘mayhem’ at the community board — oh, come on, that’s so inappropriate.”
Not happy with the News: Figli di San Gennaro, the group that runs Little Italy’s annual Feast of San Gennaro, is fuming over the recent Daily News exposé — they have a different name for it — that reported that the multiday event’s charitable donations are skimpier than a mini-cannoli. John Fratta, whose grandfather was a co-founder and president of the first feast 88 years ago, said he told the News’s reporter all about the expenses, but the guy just didn’t seem to listen. “I spoke to the reporter for 45 minutes,” Fratta told us. “He totally ignored the expenses. I went through the 990’s [expense forms] with him line by line. Maybe this reporter wants to make a name for himself. It was really libelous in my opinion.” For example, in 2012, the famed street festival brought in more than $768,000 but gave only $55,000 to charity, which is accurate, Fratta said. But there was $700,000 in expenses, he noted, including $239,000 for lights, $21,700 for publicity, more than $200,000 for sanitation, $35,000 for an event manager, $10,155 for the Mass and procession and so on. And the city gets 20 percent of the gross from all the vendors, in this case, $143,651, he added. Yet, the News article reported that the feast’s charitable giving is barely above the level from the years before 2006 when the mafia ran it — of the $4.4 million the event collected between 2007 and 2012, just 4.7 percent was given to charity, versus 3 percent in the mob-run years before then — and that the board legally is required to be giving more. And in two of the years since 2007, the feast gave zero percent to charity. The News reported that, “Nonprofits like the San Gennaro group generally donate at least 60% of what they raise to charities, according to Daniel Borochoff, of Charitywatch, a group that monitors charitable giving.” But Fratta countered to The Villager, “We’re not a foundation, we’re a charity. Our real purpose is to continue to honor San Gennaro. A foundation has to give a certain amount. We give 80 percent of what’s left over — we give it to the Church of Most Precious Blood — and Figli di San Gennaro holds onto about $13,000 for the feast through the year. The monitor we have [Richard Mark] came to us through the Rudy Giuliani cleanup of the feast. We continue to keep him, and he does kick back on some things.” Fratta said that Joseph Mattone, Figli’s present, sent a letter to the News demanding a retraction and apology, but that the paper wouldn’t print it. Adding insult to injury, Curtis Sliwa came out with a piece in the News eight days later, in which he called for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate the festival so that it can become “an honest festival.” “I guess it’s sexy to jump on the bandwagon,” Fratta said of the Guardian Angels founder. The News ran yet another article charging the feast’s lighting is still being run by mobsters, according to records. But Fratta said the guy whose firm formerly did the feast’s lights was booted from the event years ago after being “caught in Jersey accepting a bribe.” The News reported that John Cappelli was charged in 2006 for conspiring with mafiosos to intimidate a competitor from underbidding him for the San Gennaro lighting contract. As for Figli di San Gennaro’s response to the News’s coverage, they might sue, or might take out a full-page ad listing all the feast’s expenses “that the reporter left out,” according to Fratta. “It’s a shame,” he said, “because after the article, I had Jill Jilker, the manager of my complex, Southbridge Towers, call me and ask me if I was O.K.” The News did not respond to a request for comment by press time. Neither, for that matter, did area politicians whose districts include the feast, namely, Councilmember Margaret Chin, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, state Senator Daniel Squadron and Borough President Gale Brewer. As usual, the Italian-American institution is a hot potato — or make that, a hot cannoli! Mess with San Gennaro and you could potentially lose a lot of votes. A few years ago, when Community Board 2 was considering recommending shortening the feast’s physical length, local politicians ultimately mostly all chimed in in support of the festival. On a positive note, according to the News, Fratta said the group gave more to charity in 2013 — about $113,000 — and hoped to do the same after this year’s event.
